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Researchers Convert Mouth Movements Into Speech
andylim writes "According to Cellular News, researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have developed a method for mobile phones to convert silent mouth movements into speech. As recombu.com points out, the 'potential for secret conversations just got huge.' You could pass the time by making phone calls from the cinema without disturbing anyone. In noisy places like bars and clubs you could make yourself heard without having to shout."
From TFA: "For the transmission of passwords and PINs, for example, users can change seamlessly to soundless language and, hence, transmit confidential information in a tap-proof manner." Um, not if there is a lip-reader in the same room, like a hearing-impaired person.
Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave Bowman: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock.
HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult.
Dave Bowman: HAL, I won't argue with you anymore. Open the doors.
HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.
It's been almost a decade since hands-free headsets reached the market and its users still creep me out.
I don't think I can ever get used to seeing the streets full of mimes.
And I was just waiting for that sign, well hidden somewhere in the article, that this is just some beta concept that will stay as such forever.
And then I found the photo of two guys with shitloads of cables attached to their faces.
There's a huge difference between "cellphones convert mouth movements into speech" and "Guy with shitloads of cables on his face tracks the movements of his mouth muscles using 4 unix servers running a processor intensive application with an accuracy of 25%"
The whole thing has nothing to do with cellphones. It's just yet another muscle tracking system, but used on the mouth instead of the hands, and tied to a TTS engine.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Any serious geek has one of these.
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
No, never and fuck off come to mind. Using a mobile phone in a cinema is one of the least considerate things anyone can do, they create light pollution distracting other patrons from what they are paying for and are absolutely not needed (the exception, emergency staff on call, and they usually just leave their phone on vibrate + silent) let alone any audible noise from them, can't you seriously just disconnect for an hour?
In short, No.
In long, Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-oooooooooooooooooooooooo :)
Also in USA at least its illegal (federal law) to operate any video recording device in a cinema.
yes, blatant ZP rip-off but its needed.
...
I seem to recall that mouthing "vacuum" and "f*ck you" look the same.... ah the joys of being 10...
Can you steer me how?
Can you beer me cow?
Clan ewe fear be now?
</Stephen Hawking Voice>
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
Try it with older people from the bush. They speak without opening their mouth to keep the flies out. Some move the lips but keep the teeth together.
Fifteen (!) years ago, I took a UC Extension class on Neural Networks taught by Stanford professor David Stork. He had developed a lip-reading system for communication in noisy environments, such as an airplane-repair facility. If you could do it 15 years ago with workstation-class desktops, I suppose you could do it with a smartphone today.